Le diseguaglianze di Rousseau. Dal grand monde al mondo globale

This article aims at exploring the relevance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theory of inequality for interpreting today’s world. The author analyses the so-called neoliberal ideology by adopting as theoretical tools the tensions between nature and artifice, and between equality and inequality, explored by Rousseau. In the first place, the paper provides an analysis of the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men in relation with its historical context and with other Rousseau’s work, especially The Social Contract. This helps understanding Rousseau’s theory of inequality by shedding light over two fundamental topics: the social question and the theory of natural order. In the second place, the paper explores Rousseau’s thought for analysing the theoretical bases of the social question in the global world. Rousseau maintains that the social question stands on inequality, intended in relational terms. Accordingly, the author’s argument is that the social question reframed in neoliberal terms is primarily based on the fight against poverty. In the third place, the paper raises the question of the consistency of the theory of social order in neoliberal thought. The author compares the Rousseau’s tension between natural and social order with the theory of the spontaneous order developed by Hayek. The attempt of the author, in conclusion, is to define the political ideology subtended to the vague and confused notion of neoliberalism: the so-called neoliberalism, from this perspective, can be conceived as an ideology oriented to the search for new «states of nature». According to the author, today’s claim for disintermediation, in the most diverse domains, is an eloquent example of this tendency.